Why the World Went Mad
by The Articulations
Summary: This is the story of how the four nations came to be. Follow the journey of a hallucinating air bender, a hydrophobic water bender, an earth bender with a multipersonality disorder, and a pyromaniac fire bender. Told from all four's POV.
1. Prologue

Prologue:

Now listen young ones, back in the day, there were many nations, like, 100 or something, but who gives a flying bison. Anywho, this is a story about how our four wonderful nations were created, our, air nomads, water tribes, Earth Kingdom, and the Fire Nation. And now, young ones, this is the story of our first four benders…


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter One: Reginold (air)**

**Disclaimer: We don't own A:TLA**

As I pace around the room, the voices of my three collegues echo inside my head, each idea weighing heavily on my mind. Should I find others? Should I hide? Should I take off my hat? I pause,

"No! Gregory! This is my hat, I will not remove my hat!" As he falls silent, I continue pacing. Should I find others? Should I hide? What good would that do? As I reach up to scratch my head, Gregory has another out burst, to which I answer,

"NO! For the last time, NO! I like my hat! I will not take it off!" I turn to Loraine to get an elder's opinion. She says it would be in my best interest to find others. Clyde, in his soft, calming voice says that I should hide. Gregory tells me to take off my hat. I pull it down over my ears.

"Gregory! Stop it!" he falls silent again.

"All right! I have to go with Loraine. She is the elder." I pack a bag of all of possessions, and lug it out to my caravan and throw it in. My three colleagues in the back, we set out looking for the others. Whoever they are.

"No, Gregory, the hat stays on!"


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: Alaina (water)

**Disclaimer: We don't own A:TLA**

Rain. Rain? Rain! OH-NO! I run down the hallway screaming. I pick up my penguin and run into my panic room. I lock the door and begin to stroke my penguin's head.

"Rain, rain," I swallow and my voice cracks,

"Go away." I try to calm my shaking. I don't succeed.

"I have to leave! I can't stand it!" I pick up my penguin, my suitcase, and most importantly, my umbrella. I sprint down the hall, not daring to look out the windows. I run into my leaky garage, carefully avoiding the sporadic leakages. I fling the car door open and jump inside. As I set my bag in the passenger seat, a water droplet bounces off my ankle. I feel my chest tighten up. It starts to burn. I scream and pull my leg inside. As I drive away, I see a guy talking to… lettuce? I keep driving.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter Three: Spring Dych Mgy (Earth)

**Disclaimer: We don't own A:TLA**

I look at the cluttered mess on my desk and sigh. Three days of working with limited sleep can take a toll on ones health. Half asleep and still trying to drink the coffee, I rummage through the notes. A few days earlier I found an article about the conductivity of metals and how one can increase the strength of conductivity by changing polarity, but I have lost it somewhere in the jumbled mess that is my current state of mind. Later I decide to take a break from my revolutionary machine but the anxiety almost kills me. As I went back to start on my machine it started raining and I saw the local lettuce producer leaving with his supply of lettuce. Shame, I was planning on contacting him for more produce, but either way my machine awaits me. This machine has the power to charge particles with enough electricity that they become an almost infinite energy source, and while it is extremely dangerous, the particles can be easily grounded through the distribution of energy to surrounding particles. In layman terms, if it touches anything after it goes through you, you would survive. The rain was a problem that I obviously overlooked that day because, as you know, water conducts electricity well. The machine started to send bolts of plasma flying through the air, hurtling at the nearest thing that could conduct electricity well, and being covered in water, it sent a bolt directly to me. I feet the electricity surge through me, and while still conscious, I am somehow able to ground the electricity by bringing my body closer to the floor. Unbeknownst to me, after I blacked out I fell into the ground, only to pop out somewhere else. It was an odd thing, but after being electrocuted more than the human body should ever receive electricity, I pass it off as a hallucination, and while walking home I hear several loud booms from the apartment above me.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter Four: Niana (Fire)

**Disclaimer: We don't own A:TLA**

-Maniacal Laughter- I ran aNotHer picture tHrouGh the l… i…..g….h….t….e….….r.

"FIRE! BURN ALL THE PICTURES!" -Laughter- My mental health nurse opens the door to my room and rolls her eyes at the burned pIctUres all over the floor.

"Niana, what is this?" she sighs, pointing at the pictures. I shrug and finish adding gunpowder to the inside cover of the pHoTo alBum. I slam it shut and light the fuse, cackling crazily. It exPloDes and I cheer.

"YAY FOR EXPLOSIONS!" Nruse (nurse) sighs and says,

"NIANA, you must stop this!" I grin evilly and pull out another book of pictures.

Boom," I cackle.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter Five: Reginold (Air)

**Disclaimer: We don't own A:TLA. We do own: Reginold, Alaina, Spring, and Niana. **

with my colleagues chilling in the front seat, and sitting in the back seat, I had to make my mind up. Which seat shall I take? Since I was the only legal driver, I , of course, took driver seat with Loraine in shotgun. With Gregory and Clyde in the back it was much easier to listen to her told me to go, so would go. The question is, Where? Loraine said to find others, but where would I find others? I could be the only one. The magnitude of the situation hit me like a sack of lead bricks. I immediately stopped the car and after being yelled at multiple times from people behind me, I pulled to the side of the road. I contemplated the ideas when people started yelling at me, yet again. They looked rather odd. Well dressed, but still with an air of inferiority. They started yelling at me odd insults, such as saying that I was a "dumb bastard who obviously doesn't have his shit together." I quietly waited until they were done, but after I waited for fifteen minutes, it was obvious that they weren't going to leave. I poked my head out the window to ask what they wanted, but before I could say anything, a man put a gun to my head. He applied excessive force to bring me to an old man who said he ran the town. He looked nothing like the mayor, so I assumed that he was mental. He started spouting out about how I intruded on his turf and looked like a spy from the neighboring "gang". I had no idea what he was going on about, but he said he would give me the benefit of the doubt and said that if he ever saw me again, that he would destroy me and everything I loved. Then they shoved me into the streets somewhere in the middle of town and drove off in my car. I was extremely confused on why they took my car, but they were kind enough to leave me my lettuce and a rikshaw from there I made a trek back to my house to reformulate a plan.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter Six: Spring

I looked over the list of patients. Even though I recently was almost killed by my own invention, I still need funding. I work as a psychiatrist at the local mental facility, and it looks like I received two new patients. Illaina was found on the side of the road after a rainstorm, and she was already prescribed for anxiety medication. She had more serious case of aqua phobia than we previously thought. She will be admitted to the facility today and will be living at the same apartment complex as our pyromaniac patient, Naina, and I are currently living. I have to be in an area where I can treat her in case a storm comes, or she realises that there is running water thought the building. It's kind of ironic when you think about it, I'm stuck living next to someone deathly afraid of water and someone obsessed with fire. The second patient we received today was a man named Reginald who we found pulling a wheelbarrow full of lettuce around. there are three heads he's convinced real people. He will also be staying at the apartment because one of the heads is starting to wilt and decay, and with how obsessed he is I don't think we can get him out of the mind set before it "dies" and I'll need to be so he doesn't do anything too extreme. One serious design flaw I see though is what is going to happen if Reginald has to water his produce, or Naina burns some of his lettuce, or if Illaina gets burned and she won't let us run it under water until we could get help. It's also rather odd that I was able to even get. Not many people know about my condition. I have a multi personality disorder that surfaced in my late twenties, and it was usually accompanied by co consciousness so I was still able to account for the times I wasn't my original personality. One of the only reasons I don't devote my entire time to the facility is that my other personality is obsessed with mechanical devices. He's partly the reason I almost died, but I don't blame him. He was on the verge of creating a non lethal weapon that would revolutionise how wars were fought. The only problem that he had was getting it to the "non lethal" part. The electricity was only supposed to send a shock that would knock the enemy out until he could be dealt with properly. The only problem I have with him is when he grows bored when we're supposed to be helping a patient, luckily though, he has a special place in the co consciousness when I'm in control, so he knows a bit about how to handle the patients. One time there was this one patient that I just couldn't get to. He was a mechanic with post traumatic stress disorder from serving in the military for a short while. My other personality was able to get to him by devising a whole metaphor of how when a machine is used in the wrong way, it continues to work like that, and that he had to make the mental repairs on his mind to get it working the correct way. It was an odd strategy and wouldn't work with a lot of people, mechanic or not, but it somehow worked. I was amazed at how he made it work until I realised that I have the ability to use his skills. It's an amazing thin that I learned to work together with my "alter ego" and make it seem as though I'm just a psychiatrist with a hobby for machines. my only hope is that nobody in the hospital finds out, because I really don't want to lose my job.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter Six: Illaina

Beep. Beep. Beep. Why do I hear beeping? I slowly opened my eyes. I have to squint against the stark white lightning that greets my eyes. What is this place? Just then, a door opens.

"Well, well, well. Look who's finally awake." The visitor smiles down at me.

"We'll take very good care of you here."

"I don't understand. Where am I?" The young woman doesn't answer. She goes over to the machine that's beeping violently. She presses some buttons and jots things down on a clipboard. She sits in a chair across the room from my bed.

"Can I help you with something?" I ask her in a confused tone.

"Actually we're going to help you." I try to figure out what that means. My hands start to shake. I can hear a dripping noise. I look to my left. There's a bag hanging from a pole. It has liquid that looks like…. WATER! I start to shake even more.

"Illaina, is everything okay?" she stands up.

"Doctor! Doctor Spring!" she shouts. I can't answer her. I start to scream. The water is connected to a tube that's connected to my arm by a needle. It's going into my body!

"Illaina! Calm down!" When I don't she injects something into me. Things start to go fuzzy. Then slowly, everything fades to black.


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight: Niana

I slip out of my room, looking around the hallway cautiously. Spring and a nurse talk quietly at the end of the hallway. The purple bowler catches my eye. I turn to the doors. I open one, there is a young man with blonde hair, and blue arrows tattooed of his arms. On the other bed is a trio of lettuce heads. They are slightly wilted. I move to the foot of the bed and look at the patient sheet. Reginold. Age eighteen. Condition: Hallucinations. I raise an eye brow and walk out of the room. The second room is quiet, until I open the door and am met by a shriek and a pillow being tossed at me.

"NO! NO MORE WATER!" The woman on the bed screams. I give her my best glare and she sags. I walk over to the bed and look at her sheet.

"I'm Niana." I say absentmindedly. She whimpers, and then says,

"Illaina." I shake her hand, and say,

"They've diagnosed you with hydrophobia, you know." She nods and crosses her arms.

"I know." The door opens again, and Spring is staring at us, fury written on his face.

"Niana!" I stand and face him, hands on hips.

"What? Am I doing something wrong?" He splutters and finally yells,

"Get back to your room!" I stalk past him, shoving him on the way out. I don't notice the fire crackling around my hands until my sleeves catch on fire. I gasp and pat out the flames. Then I stare at my hands. Was I hallucinating again? Shaking, I dash into my room and hurl myself onto the bed. Tears come out, and I sob uncontrollably. Dammit! Why couldn't I just be normal? I let out a howl of sheer pain. Then I brake down, tears and snot, and shaking. I guess that's why I don't hear Spring come in and sit on the bed beside me. His calloused hand rub my back, and I turn my head around to look at him. He sighs. I sit up and wrap my arms around him. Spring has been my older brother figure for twelve years, ever since I was brought to the asylum at age five.

"Hush. I'm here. I'm sorry." He says, and I nod. We rock back and forth, sane and insane, loved, and unloved.


End file.
